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Turn debt into hope

Turn debt
into hope

CANCEL DEBT TO CREATE HOPE

As we begin our journey for the 2025 Jubilee, Pope Francis reminds us that “hope should be granted to the billions of the poor who often lack the essentials of life” and that “the goods of the Earth are not destined for a privileged few but for everyone.” (Spes Non Confundit, 15-16)

Inspired by this call to justice, we are joining Caritas Internationalis’ campaign Turn Debt into Hope along with many other faith-based and civil society organisations.

Together, we urge decision-makers to prioritise people and planet over mere profit and demand debt justice for communities crushed by unjust and unpayable debts.

As the Holy Father writes, “if we really wish to prepare a path to peace in our world, we must commit ourselves to remedying the remote causes of injustice, settling unjust and unpayable debts” (Spes Non Confundit, 16).

We mobilized around the G7

The G7 summit was held in Kananaskis, Alta., from June 15 to 17, 2025. But Canadians began mobilizing around the Turn Debt into Hope campaign a week earlier, with a special guest from Peru. Cardinal Pedro Barreto, a friend of Pope Francis, a colleague of Pope Leo XIV and a longtime ally of Development and Peace ― Caritas Canada (DPCC), brought a strong message for the G7 leaders.

In the lead-up to the G7, a creative and global community gathered in nearby Calgary for the G7 Jubilee People’s Forum, co-organized by KAIROS Canada, DPCC and others. It was a time to meet, share strategies, educate one another, work creatively, and discuss what we saw as the most significant issues of our time. The forum hosted participants from Kenya and Palestine to Washington and Whitehorse.

Here are some of the key moments of this landmark mobilization:

Creating Hope at the G7 Jubilee People’s Forum

A motivated and mobilized youth

The People’s Forum in pictures

Act for debt justice

Today, nearly half the world’s population is living in countries that are forced to spend more on repaying debts than on health, education or tackling the climate crisis. With more than 100 countries in the Global South facing a debt crisis, we must act to stop this by cancelling and restructuring unjust and unsustainable debt and prevent other debt crises from happening again by addressing their root causes.

Together, let’s ensure future generations do not have to pay the price of an unjust debt.

The Jubilee reminds us that the goods of the earth are not destined for a privileged few, but for everyone. The rich must be generous and not avert their eyes from the faces of their brothers and sisters in need.
— Pope Francis, (Spes Non Confundit, 16)

What is a Jubilee?

Celebrated every 25 years in the Catholic Church, a jubilee is a special year of forgiveness and reconciliation, in which people are invited to come back into right relationship with God, with one another, and with all of creation. The tradition is inspired by the biblical year of jubilee, a time when debts were canceled, slaves were set free, and the land was allowed to rest (Lev. 25, Deut. 15).

This year, under the theme “Pilgrims of Hope,” Pope Francis invites Catholics to renew their hope and adopt a vision that can “restore access to the fruits of the earth to everyone.”

EXTERNAL DEBT AND ECOLOGICAL DEBT:

WHO OWES WHOM?

Global financial systems always demand massive debt repayments from countries in the Global South, often on harsh, impoverishing terms. Yet, they do not even acknowledge, let alone repay, a debt owed to those countries. This is the ecological debt that Pope Francis addressed in his encyclical Laudato Si’.

Western societies incur this debt while enriching themselves through economic models that rely on plundering resources from the Global South and on overconsumption. Greenhouse gases generated in the process drive the climate change whose brunt is borne by the lowest-emitting countries in the Global South.

Recognizing this ecological debt is an essential step to achieving debt and climate justice and a sustainable future.

OUR PARTNERS MAKE THE DIFFERENCE

Around the world, many people are impacted by the burden of external and ecological debts.

Here are two examples from our partners. Learn more in our Mini-magazine:

PERU

Peru may not be in an economic debt crisis, but it is an ecological debt crisis. To build its economy, and to avoid having to take on external debt, the country has turned to extractive industries. This has serious consequences on the health of entire communities and the environment.

Our partners, the Comisión Episcopal de Acción Social (CEAS, Episcopal Commission for Social Action) and the Institut Bartolomé de Las Casas (IBC) work with several peasant and Indigenous communities affected by the mining and oil industries.

THE PHILIPPINES

View of Pope Francis’ village, Tacloban.

The Philippines’ total external debt now stands at over $111 billion. In 2013, the country had to borrow billions in the wake of Super Typhoon Haiyan. While most large reconstruction projects were debt-funded, one stood apart.

Your solidarity allowed our partners to acquire the land for and build a whole new community, working with 550 typhoon-affected families.

Ten years later, the Pope Francis Village is a thriving example of post-disaster rehabilitation.

Resources

Spread the word about the Share Lent campaign in your community and encourage donations with our many resources: poster, Mini-magazine + Solidarity Calendar, short talk, parish bulletin announcements, prayers of the faithful, Way of the Cross, weekly reflections, promotional banners and more!